The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the NGO Freedom of Information Coalition, the Association of Serbian Journalists and the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia held a meeting today to commend the Right to Know Day, 28 September, with the attendance of numerous representatives from the media, citizens' associations, public authorities and members of the diplomatic chorus. The addresses at the meeting were made by H.E. Peter Burkhard, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Mr. Sasa Jankovic, the Ombudsman, and Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection.
The meeting was an opportunity to introduce the publication III - Free Access to Information – "Commissioner's Attitudes and Opinions", which was presented by Ms Stanojla Mandic, Deputy Commissioner.
In commendation of the Right to Know Day, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic said:
"Once again, Serbia is commending the International Right to Know Day, just as we have done in the past eight years. Allow me to take this opportunity to remind you that, although implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information has yielded obvious results, there is little reason to be satisfied. The situation in the field of freedom of information has not been improving at a satisfactory rate and there are still a lot of problems and incidents. For this reason we are missing an opportunity to achieve the necessary results in further democratisation, downsizing of the government apparatus, establishment of better relations in the media sphere and, perhaps most importantly, in the fight against corruption, crime and abuse.
The award in the competition for "The Best Information Booklet on the Work of Public Authorities" was presented to the city of Smederevo. Ms. Milijana Novakovic, Head of the city administration of Smederevo, collected the award.
The Award for Contribution to the Affirmation of Freedom of Information and Transparency of Work was presented to municipality Zvezdara in Belgrade. The Award was collected by Aleksandra Kuzmanovic, MA, Head of Administration of the City Municipality of Zvezdara.
The Award Committee this year decided to present the special award to the OSCE Mission to Serbia. The special award consists of recognition for a special contribution to affirmation of the right of access to information and a statuette which remains with the awardee until the next Right to Know Day. The award was collected by H.E. Ambassador Peter Burkhard.
Following the practice established in the past years, the awardees were selected by the Committee comprised of the heads of the Association of Serbian Journalists and the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, a representative of the academia and a representative of the NGO Freedom of Information Coalition, while Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic presented the awards."
